Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 30 shipments of transuranic waste during June, making it one of the busiest disposal months since the COVID-19 pandemic reduced in-person operations at DOE nuclear sites in March 2020. Of the 30 shipments last month recorded on a Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) […]

The legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in August plans to start the site’s largest radioactive waste extraction effort in more than a decade, a company executive told a federal advisory board Thursday. Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) vice president Joe Legare said in August the contractor […]

Northern New Mexico Integrated Security, a joint venture between incumbent Centerra Group and Tsay Construction and Services, a small business with tribal ownership, won a five-year security services contract at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, the lab announced Wednesday. Triad National Security, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s management contractor for Los Alamos, […]

The House of Representatives voted 220-207 Wednesday to approve the 2023 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, which includes $7.9 billion for the Department of Energy’s cleanup of Cold War and Manhattan Project sites. With a little more than two months left in fiscal 2022, the package of six spending bills, including funds for DOE’s Office […]

Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation took home about $16 million of a potential $16.8 million for its final review period as the Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to a fee scorecard, issued Thursday. Savannah River Remediation (SRR) earned $1.5 million out of a potential $1.7 million in […]

After a dip last week, the number of confirmed, active cases of COVID-19 among onsite workers for the Department of Energy’s office of Environmental Management rose by 50 this week to 169, almost back to the 171 cases logged two weeks ago. The numbers for non-telecommuting Environmental Management (EM) workers, provided Thursday by a federal […]

Department of Energy contractor Mid-America Conversion Services has restarted the depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plant at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio for the first time since 2020, but operations at the Paducah Site in Kentucky are expected to be down until next month after a June 10 accident there, the agency said. Both depleted uranium […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management chose a Bechtel National-led joint venture to manage the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., starting as soon as October. As of Friday morning, none of the losing bidders had protested the award to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). One source said DOE’s debriefings to losing […]

Current and former Department of Energy contractors at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio have until Aug. 30 to file a reply to a federal lawsuit filed by a father who claims offsite radioactive contamination contributed to the cancer that claimed the life of his 13-year-old son. The deadlines for the answers to the complaint was […]

The Congressionally-created safety watchdog for nuclear defense facilities was not denied access to any Department of Energy records or personnel during the first six months of 2022. In a regular update to Congress, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said July 1 that the Secretary of Energy did not deny any written requests for […]

The Department of Energy has issued an enforcement letter to an Amentum-Jacobs joint venture and its subcontractor GEM Technologies over “concerns with improper asbestos exposure monitoring” during cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Mouse House. The DOE’s Office of Enforcement, however, plans no additional action against URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) or GEM over asbestos […]

The Department of Energy has approved its plan to speed up spent fuel removal from the L-Basin storage area at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In a Monday press release, DOE announced approval of what it calls accelerated basin de-inventory ABD, which would use H Canyon to dissolve spent nuclear fuel without processing […]

The Department of Energy and South Carolina are investigating a July 4 spill of contaminated water around H Canyon at the Savannah River Site, officials confirmed this week. There was a spill of low-level radiologically-contaminated water from a temporary above-ground tank system used to take liquid from the pumping of a sump, which happens periodically […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has selected a manager from the semi autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, Cathy Tullis, to be its next chief of staff effective July 17. Tullis, currently chief of staff for the associate administrator for management and budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), will fill the […]

The Department of Energy’s special adviser for Environmental Management, William (Ike) White, told a Congressional panel Wednesday the agency’s cleanup branch is addressing research and development problems raised in an October 2021 Government Accountability Office report. The Office of Environmental Management has issued a definition for research and development (R&D) and is in the early […]

William (Ike) White, the top fed at the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, anticipates radiological operations “at least up and running” at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at Idaho National Laboratory by the end of the year. White made the remark to Weapons Complex Monitor Wednesday after a House Science, Space and Technology […]

The Department of Energy is gathering market data about the next Occupational Medical Services contract for the Hanford Site in Washington state, the agency announced Thursday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the request for information in a press release and on the government procurement website, SAM.gov. Thursday’s notice said the Office of Environmental […]

A major underground ventilation project key to the future of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is almost two-thirds of the way finished, a manager for the prime contractor told a virtual “town hall” meeting Thursday. The Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System is 63% percent complete, Nuclear Waste Partnership president […]

A Honeywell-owned prime contractor for Sandia National Laboratories said in a Tuesday filing a wrongful firing suit brought against it by a scientist who worked on data for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant should remain in federal court. National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia said the wrongful termination suit brought by […]

A parent’s wrongful death suit against current and former Department of Energy contractors at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio will be overseen by the same federal judge hearing a radiation contamination case brought by residents near the shuttered gaseous diffusion plant. An order Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio said the June […]

New Mexico and the federal government this week asked a federal magistrate to give them until Oct. 3 to resolve litigation about the 2016 consent order governing legacy nuclear-weapons cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Department of Justice, on behalf of the Department of Energy, and the attorney general’s office for New Mexico […]

Mid-America Conversion Services, the Atkins-led incumbent running the Department of Energy’s depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion program, employs a workforce of more than 400 people in Kentucky and Ohio, according to procurement information recently posted online. As of June 1 Mid-America has 200 employees at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, 119 union members and the rest […]

Maryland-based Amentum, a leading government contractor for the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, announced the addition of two new senior managers June 30. Amentum, which leads multibillion-dollar joint ventures across the DOE weapons complex, announced the personnel additions in a June 30 press release. Sean Mullen was appointed executive vice president for […]

The House Appropriations Committee, which last week advanced a spending bill with about $7.9-billion in fiscal 2023 funds for the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office, is still concerned about long-term remediation costs of the Hanford Site in Washington state. House appropriators remain antsy about the money and time needed to fully clean up the […]

The Department of Energy has taken care of seven of 25 priority issues identified by the Government Accountability Office in 2021 and should get to work on the rest, Congress’ investigative arm wrote in a letter to the agency. “We are also adding eight new recommendations related to project, program, and portfolio management; contract management; […]

The Department of Energy could start a federal readiness assessment this month at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory facilities in California that prepare transuranic waste for shipment to the agency’s underground disposal site in New Mexico, according to a government safety board. On May 31, 2022, the lab began the contractor readiness assessment for restarting operations […]

Workers employed by the Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina withdrew a legal challenge to the site’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate from a federal appeals court. “The dismissal of this interlocutory appeal from the denial of a preliminary injunction does not affect either party’s right to appeal any final […]

Confirmed COVID-19 cases among onsite workers at the Department of Energy’s nuclear-cleanup branch declined for the seven days ended Thursday after spiking in recent weeks, an agency spokesperson said. There were 119 confirmed and active COVID cases at DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) worksites this week, down 52 from the 171 recorded the prior […]